The State of Missouri is preparing its killing machine once again. Martin Link was the last execution in 2011. Ever since, the Missouri Attorney General has been pushing for more dates from the Missouri Supreme Court. Those dates have not been forthcoming for several reasons.
First, the cocktail of drugs used for lethal injections has dried up. That’s because the makers of the drug have either prohibited its use for executions or the manufacturers have simply stopped making it. So Missouri moved to using one drug, Propofol. Yes, the drug that killed our beloved Michael Jackson in 2009. The drug remains untested for use in executions. This apparently doesn’t mean a thing. After all, this is the Show-Me State.
One of Attorney General Chris Koster’s arguments for speed was that Missouri’s stash of people-killing drugs was about to expire. Three units of Propofol are left and they have expiration dates. One expires in October, another in May 2014 and the last one in 2015.
Propofol is made in Europe, a staunch anti-death penalty continent. In fact, the European Union is so opposed to the death penalty that it has threatened to ban the drug for export to the U.S. There are also court challenges by death row inmates and others on the untested use of Propofol for executions. These should be resolved before the state proceeds.
The people of the U.S. are trying to catch up with the rest of the civilized world in abolishing the death penalty. Right now, the U.S. is in the company of the likes China, Saudi Arabia and North Korea for killing its citizens.
Over the last five years, executions in this country have dramatically decreased. Missouri has had just two executions since 2005. Nationally, there are 3,146 people on death row and only 23 executions so far this year.
Additionally, 18 states plus the District of Columbia have done away with the death penalty. Several others are aggressively working to put it in the dustbin of history. World Day Against the Death Penalty will help to provide a strategic focus.
Allen Nicklasson is scheduled to be put to death on October 23; he is the co-defendant of Skillicorn in the 1997 killing of Richard Drummond. Joseph Paul Franklin is scheduled to die on November 20. Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty is poised to mobilize for a vigil should the state move forward with the execution of Nicklasson.
One of the major findings by the Special Master in the Reggie Clemons case was that the prosecution withheld crucial evidence. This speaks to another compelling reason why jurors are reluctant to give out death sentences. The hundreds of death row inmates who have been exonerated have pulled the covers off the unethical and often unconstitutional methods used by overzealous prosecutors who are climbing the ladder of judicial mobility. The collateral damage they do is unconscionable – financially, emotionally and socially.
I believe we are close to driving the final nails in the coffin of the death penalty. We must continue to seek humane ways and processes for dealing with the multiplicity of problems our society faces. As we plainly see all around us, violence begets more violence.
